Although R.E.M.'s star took a long while to rise, as Mike Mills alluded to, their successes have been real and numerous during their long career.

R.E.M.

"There've been very few life-changing events in our career because our career has been so gradual. If you want to talk about life-changing, I think 'Losing My Religion' is the closest it gets."

Although R.E.M.'s star took a long while to rise, as Mike Mills alluded to, their successes have been real and numerous during their long career.

College Boys

R.E.M. Was formed in 1980 by Michael Stipe and Peter Buck, both students at the University of Georgia, in Athens, Georgia. They met in the record store where Buck was employed and discovered very similar musical tastes. These tastes primarily included punk rock and protopunk, especially artists such as The Velvet Underground, Television, and Patti Smith. Michael Stipe stated that Buck saw that Stipe was buying all the albums that he was saving for himself. Mike Mills and Bill Berry, fellow students and high school friends, joined Stipe and Buck. They began practicing together without any plan of where the group was going. Their first show came in April of 1980, at a birthday party in a converted church. They performed under the name Twisted Kites. Shortly after that Michael Stipes claims they changed their name after randomly opening the dictionary.

Eventually the boys dropped out of school to focus on their music and found a manager, Jefferson Holt, from Chapel Hill, NC. He believed in R.E.M. so much that he left NC and moved to Athens, GA to manage the group. Their local success was almost immediate and they continued to draw larger and larger crowds. They were soon touring the Southeastern United States.

In 1981 R.E.M. recorded their first single, Radio Free Europe, in Winston-Salem, NC. It was released on a local independent label, Hib-Tone, with only one thousand copies released. In spite of the limited release, they achieved critical success, even being named one of The New York Times' ten best singles of 1981.

Gaining Success

In 1981 R.E.M. recorded the EP Chronic Town. The plan was to release it on indie label, Dasht Hopes but, I.R.S. Records heard a demo of their first recording session and, in May 1982, the group signed with I.R.S., turning down RCA Records. Chronic Town was released in August 1982, to positive reviews.

1983 saw R.E.M. releasing their first truly I.R.S. album, Murmur. The recording of this album was marked by changes in producers, from Stephen Hague to Don Dixon and Mitch Easter, and venues, finally recording in NC again. The album was a huge hit, being named record of the year for Rolling Stones and reaching 36 on the Billboard chart.

The band paired with Dixon and Easter again in 1984 to produce their second album, Reckoning. This one peaked a bit higher, at number 27.

Rising Fortunes

With Fables of Reconstruction (1985) they changed producers and directions, stylistically. They recorded this third album in England and the group was miserable the whole time. This led to the group almost coming to an end. However, this third album was the highest-selling release for I.R.S. in America up until that point.

For their fourth album, Life's Rich Pageant (1986), they slightly altered their sound, making Stipe more of a vocal front man. The album peaked at 21 on the charts and found some minimal mainstream success, although their college rock style was still being shunned by many top 40 stations.

Shortly after Life's Rich Pageant I.R.S. released Dead Letter Office, a compilation of studio tracks and B-sides. On the heels of this the label released their first video compilation, Succumbs.

Breaking Through

Stipe became openly political in their next album, Document (1987). This was their breakthrough release. The first single, The One I Love, hit top 20 in Canada, the UK, and the US. This was their first album to sell one million copies. Rolling Stone's December 1987 cover proclaimed the R.E.M. was "America's Best Rock & Roll Band."

When their contract with I.R.S. expired they decided to move to Warner Bros. Records. Under Warner Bros. they released Green (1988). This release contained one of their most well known singles, Stand. After this release the band chose to take a year off.

In 1990 they came back together to record Out of Time. By 1996 this album had sold about 12 million records, worldwide. The lead single, Losing My Religion, peaked at number 4 on the charts. In 1992 this album also garnered the group seven Grammy nominations and three wins.

Other albums have included Automatic for the People (1992), Monster (1994), New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), Up (1998), Reveal (2001), Around the Sun (2004), and Accelerate (2008).

R.E.M. has been one of the most influential alternative rock groups of the 90's and their legacy will be heard for years to come.

Did You Know....

• R.E.M. was originally called Twisted Kites.
• Rolling Stone named them "Best Band in America" in 1987.
• Michael Stipe refused to lip-synch in videos during the 80's after being disappointed with one of their earlier videos.
• Drummer Bill Berry, who left the group in 1997, is now a farmer.

• Unlimited Music Access
• Music File Sharing
• Country Based Radio Channels
• Easy, Fast and Safe!
• 100% Free!